‘With Love, Texas' is a love letter from RobinWood — Robin Baker and Wood Fancher Anthony's collaboration — to the place they call home.
The more I learned about the research behind these paintings, the more impressed I was by what the artists had done. They spent months researching Texas law, history, landscape, and current events. The plants, animals, and objects throughout the work were chosen for a reason. When Robin and Wood speak about the paintings, they can account for even the smallest details. There are no accidents. I can only imagine the conversations behind each painting. I appreciate that kind of responsibility: knowing what you are referencing and being able to account for it. Not every artist chooses to work that way, nor do they need to. But when artists take it on, I think it deserves recognition.

Robin works in high-contrast black and white. He sees in shadow and light, and that is how he paints. Wood works in oil, with an exquisite realist hand and extraordinary attention to color and detail. Their approaches are very different, and each brings something to the paintings that the other could not.

We brought With Love, Texas to Monterroso Gallery because of the intention behind the work and the way Robin and Wood turned their research into paintings that tell stories. The paintings don't reveal everything immediately. They are representational, beautiful in places, strange in others, and full of details that make you wonder why something is there. How much you take from the work will depend on who you are and how closely you are willing to look..

Gabriela Monterroso

Curator